10 Industries The Internet of Things Will Change Forever

internet of thingsAccording to McKinsey, linking the physical and digital worlds could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025. In other words: The Internet of Things is a technology that will drive the next economy.

As Nico Adams of CSIRO points out, with IoT companies can evolve from product businesses to service businesses that are capable of affecting real economic and social change.

Today, any organization — regardless of size or industry — can harness IoT to deliver new services, elevate customer relationships, and unlock new recurring revenue streams; thus changing the way we live. This article provides a fantastic read for those keen on innovative technologies.

Here are ten industries the Internet of things will change forever:

Manufacturing

The IoT Management means manufacturing activities will no longer fit into separate silos, nor will they be isolated from the latest advances in IT. Data sharing and open network architectures have given rise to smart manufacturing, whereby processes are more closely tied to the internet and informed by advances in big data. Verizon forecasts services will account for a greater share of manufacturing revenues than product sales by 2025, and the changed operating environment will result in new operating models.

Commerce

The supply chain starts from when raw materials are sourced all the way to the checkout register. Artificial Intelligence helps support decisions based on data points collected throughout your network of vendors and logistics providers. Transactions and conditions can be monitored to ensure timely delivery of goods or materials and make better use of resources. Considerations could include the time of day for traffic, the weather at your destination, or how long before a payload expires. Also, seasonality and other factors can affect price. Optimizing outcomes based on real-world variables reduces time and cost, and allows us to focus on the quality of the customer experience.

Energy

The Internet of Things (IoT) has fuelled the development of smart solutions, notably for those in the energy and utilities sector. Verizon findings show smart grids could save the US $6bn in otherwise-lost power each year, while smart meters will allow households to keep tabs on where they are missing efficiencies. Funded on the premise that openness will bring greater cost savings, smart appliances have an important part to play in the industry, with utility companies forecast to manage 1.53 billion devices before the end of 2020.

Transportation

The complexities associated with transportation – particularly in densely populated urban environments – are many, though studies show, increasingly, that the IoT has a part to play in making transport safer and more efficient. The GSM Association predicts every US vehicle will be connected to the internet before 2025, and changes on this same front will greatly improve fuel efficiency. Complex analytics capabilities also mean travel on or in roads, rails, seas and skies will be safer.

Agriculture

The Internet of Things is enabling data-driven smart agriculture. In crop farming, data analytics software can provide actionable information by combining information on current weather, the slope of the land, type of soil and exposure to sunshine with data captured by sensors measuring moisture, heat, chemicals and other conditions. Each sensor can monitor a specific condition or set of conditions. Water, fertilizer and pesticides can be applied in more precise quantities and locations and with better timing which will increase yields. The IoT can help alleviate food shortages by enabling more intensive use of farm land that results in higher outputs. The IoT can also help livestock farming or ranching be more productive in the use of water, energy, food and other resources and even help track the location of livestock. More IoT applications have become feasible because the cost and size of sensor devices continues to decrease and their sophistication for measuring conditions keeps increasing.

Healthcare

A recent MarketResearch.com report predicted the healthcare IoT market will tip the $117bn mark by 2020, as big names re-calibrate to satisfy the industry’s consumerization. Much of the transformation is attributable to advances in big data, which means consumers are better informed about matters pertaining to their health. By harnessing this data, providers will, in the near future, be able to offer personalized medical plans and deliver them much quicker. Now, health records are also made electronically such as Medical EMR Software. So, designing software for the healthcare industry, like the ones on ForeSee Medical, is one of the main tasks for the leading software development companies.

As the major players point their attention to healthcare and how it is provided publicly areas of opportunity that have been pointed out for years finally get the attention they deserve. So many needs of people are going unanswered, with so far no hope that the future will change things. Not anymore. Now you can get a kd chair from healthcare for example, and as hard to believe as it may be, accessibility for disabled individuals does not seem to be anywhere near the top priority. For those less fortunate, the reality of needing a wheelchair would already limit their potential, but to not have even that brings that down to almost zero. It is a said state of affairs, but the right people are looking are the right issues, and things that have long been overdue for a change might be getting it now.

Automotive

Connected cars are driving the Internet of Things. By 2020, consultancy Gartner estimates that nearly 250 million cars will be connected to the Internet, and PriceWaterhouseCooper forecasts that the connected car market will be worth $149 billion by that year. IoT will bring driverless car ubiquity, advancements in sensors, on-board computers, cameras, and LIDAR have allowed automakers like Tesla Motors to become a dominant force in this growing segment. Also, IoT will turn carmakers into technology companies. Changes in the current automotive market are already transforming automakers into technology companies, and the IoT will accelerate that change even more.

Public Safety

Public safety IoT applications are gaining traction at all levels of government, the promise is to use data to make cities safer through predictive crime applications and police monitoring. A clear example of this is a solution unveiled last September by Hitachi Data Systems. The solution is designed to enable organizations to improve public safety by tapping into the IoT. Hitachi Data Systems said it has designed hybrid cloud systems that allow public safety officials to implement and use predictive crime analytics and video management systems to strengthen efforts to combat crime.

FinTech

Since the underlying value in IoT is the transfer of data, and the financial sector relies heavily on gathering and analyzing data, it’s hard not to imagine IoT disrupting the financial services industry. The appeal of IoT is to make static, physical objects engaging and smart. More and more the customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. This means that potential customers will pick the brand that is easiest to work with, before they will consider price or brand loyalty. How can you transform the ATM experience by augmenting it with the smartphone or smartwatch and skipping the debit card experience? Retail banks can also mimic how retailers are starting to place sensors in stores to suggest product details, discounts and recommendations through the consumers’ smartphones. Recent research shows that consumers who receive personalized messages are nearly 20 times more likely to buy. By connecting the retail banking environment, banks can increase the adoption rate of extra lines of services dramatically with personalized, contextual messages.

Cybersecurity

IoT devices are changing cybersecurity. Simply put, cybersecurity is front and center when so many devices connected to the internet.


Also published on Medium.

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